Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Motley Crue singer ince Neil will take a plea deal and serve two weeks of jail time, plus two weeks of house arrest, for driving drunk in his Lamborghini last summer near the Las Vegas Strip.

Neil agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to misdemeanor driving under the influence when he appears before a Las Vegas judge on Jan. 26, said Tess Driver, an aide to Clark County District Attorney David Roger.

Neil's publicist, Jill Siegel, released a statement on Neil's behalf.

"I have recognized that you can't drink and drive at all," it said.

Neil's lawyer, David Chesnoff, noted that Neil could have faced up to six months in jail and said there were legal defenses to the charge.

"Mr. Neil recognized that he needed to take responsibility for his actions," Chesnoff said.

Driver said Neil is scheduled to begin serving his sentence Feb. 15. That will be a week after Neil's 50th birthday.

Police said Neil was stopped in his black sports car late June 27 after leaving the Las Vegas Hilton. Less than a week earlier, he had declared his sobriety.

"There's just a point in your life where you kind of stop, that's what happened with me," Neil told an AP reporter in an interview about a tell-all book. Neil said he hadn't used drugs in 20 years and had stopped abusing alcohol.

Neil is the front man for a four-member heavy metal band known for bad behavior, hard partying, famous girlfriends and hard-driving hits like "Girls, Girls, Girls" and "Dr. Feelgood." He and his fourth wife, Lia, live in Las Vegas, where Neil also owns tattoo shops and two bars.

Police said following Neil's arrest in June that they were also investigating a report of an incident that night involving Neil, a female fan and a broken camera in front of the Las Vegas Hilton, home of Neil's Tres Rios Cantina.

The case was closed after the woman declined to cooperate, department spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said Tuesday.

Neil's guilty plea won't be his first.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and drunken driving in a 1984 crash in Redondo Beach, Calif., that killed his passenger, Nicholas Dingley, a 24-year-old drummer with the group Hanoi Rocks.

Neil, then 25, wasn't injured. He served 20 days in jail and agreed to pay $2.5 million in restitution to victims.